DEPUTY'S DESK

REPORT

YEAR 10 PERISHER SNOW CAMP

A big thank you to the staff who attended the Year 10 Snow Camp last week. The staff did a wonderful job to ensure that students were able to develop their skills in a safe and secure environment. Well done to all the students who attended as well.

Learning a new skill like snow skiing or snow boarding is a great example of what is required to succeed. Whilst there are always a couple who pick up the skills very quickly and naturally the vast majority of students need to display persistence and resilience to develop these new skills to a level where they can really enjoy themselves on the slopes. In many ways this is just like school.

For most of us to succeed at school requires determination, motivation, passion, support, persistence and resilience and these are exactly what is required when learning Snow Skiing or Snow Boarding. So well done to all those students who demonstrated these attributes and developed a new skill set.

NAPLAN RESULTS

As you may have read or heard in the media there has been a hold up with the release of the NAPLAN results this year. However they were finally released last week.

Individual Student NAPLAN Reports Now Available For Collection

Year 7 and Year 9 students NAPLAN test reports for 2018 are now available and can be collected from reception. VCAA recommend that ‘due to the confidential nature’ parents should collect them directly.

The National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a nationwide test of all Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students in English and Mathematics . The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests were undertaken in May.

All students at Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in schools across Australia undertook the same tests on the same days. The NAPLAN tests are conducted at schools throughout Australia and marked by expert, independent markers. The content of each test is informed by the National Statements of Learning and Mathematics, which underpin state and territory learning frameworks. Test questions cover aspects of Literacy (Reading, Writing, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling) and Numeracy.

These National tests provide information on how students are progressing and support improvements in teaching and learning. 

The NAPLAN report will indicate the child’s level of achievement. Each student’s level of achievement will be reported against the agreed national benchmarks of student achievement.

It is important that unexpected results do not cause you alarm.  The NAPLAN was a group of tests taken over a period of three days – it is no more or less important than any other piece of assessment.  There are many factors contributing to your child’s results and the NAPLAN should be seen as another piece of useful information about your child’s progress.  School reports, feedback from teachers, examples of student work, and the general happiness of your son/daughter are all valuable indicators as to how they are progressing.

A good read on what NAPLAN results do and don’t mean can be found on the following webpage from Melbourne University Senior Education Lecturer Suzanne Rice.

Should you have concerns or questions about the NAPLAN tests please contact your child’s Homeroom Teacher.

Given NAPLAN results have recently become available it is an opportune time to reflect on what are some of the factors that affect students results. A recent study shows missing just one day of school has negative consequences for a student’s academic achievement. The research was presented at the Australian Council for Education Research’s annual conference in Adelaide in 2014 and this major study showed a direct link between poor attendance and lower NAPLAN results.

Australia has a very poor record when it comes to school attendance, with secondary school students skipping more days of school than almost any other developed country.

An analysis of the attendance records and NAPLAN results of more than 400,000 students from Western Australia found any absence of school leads to a slip in academic performance.

The study dispels the common belief there is a safe level of absence students can get away with before their grades will suffer. “We were able to show that actually every day counts and days that you’re missing in year 3 and year 5, we can detect that all the way through to year 9,” the report’s co-author Professor Stephen Zubrick from the University of Western Australia said. “A 10 day period of unauthorised absence in a year is sufficient to drop a child about a band in the NAPLAN testing.”

In another study a major international survey of 15-year-olds, conducted by the OECD in 2012, almost one-third of Australian students said they had skipped at least one day of school in the previous two weeks.

That means Australian students skip school more frequently than any other developed country except Turkey and Italy. In high-performing countries such as Japan and Korea that figure was less than 2 per cent. 

I commend the parents of St Joseph's College Mildura students on helping to maintain a high level of student attendance. By doing so you are providing the best possible opportunity for your child to achieve at a high level.

Mr Greg Kluske

Deputy Principal, Learning and Teaching